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McLaren confirms Alonso's return for Malaysia

Formula One will have one more multiple world champion on the grid in Malaysia as McLaren has confirmed that Fernando Alonso will indeed be returning to the cockpit this weekend. The former two-time champ suffered a major crash during pre-season testing in Barcelona a month ago, and subsequently sat out the season opener in Australia earlier this month. The team refuted rampant rumors that there had been some sort of electrical glitch related to the hybrid Energy Recovery System that caused Alonso to pass out behind the wheel, insisting that nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Since the crash, McLaren reports that its star driver "has followed a rigorous, specialised training programme, designed and closely monitored by leading sports scientists, to ensure his safe and timely return to racing." He visited the team's headquarters in Woking, England, where he met with his engineers and spent some virtual time behind the wheel of the team's state-of-the-art simulator. That means this weekend will mark Fernando's first time racing for McLaren since the end of 2007 when he spent one season with the team, before returning to Renault, with which he had won his two world titles. After two more seasons, he switched to Ferrari, but after failing to emerge from Red Bull's shadow in the seasons that followed, Alonso returned to McLaren. It's a difficult time to be driving for the British team, though: after dismal pre-season testing mired by Alonso's crash and mechanical difficulties related to the new Honda engine, his substitute Kevin Magnussen failed to make it to the starting grid in Melbourne while team-mate Jenson Button managed to finish, but no better than dead last. News Source: McLaren Motorsports McLaren F1 malaysian grand prix

The McLaren 570GT is slower and softer, and maybe that's a good thing

If there was ever a car that could do with a bit less going on, it's the new McLaren 570S. The company's design chief, Robert Melville, says that McLaren design is a "purist statement" with no excess. We think he need to examining the prescription of his spectacles. In the case of the 570S particularly, there's a distinct possibility that less might actually be a great deal more. Now, meet the new GT version of the 570S, which makes its debut at the Geneva Motor Show next week. The on-sale date is in July, with the first US deliveries taking place in late 2016. This is a case where GT does not mean performance, but instead the traditional definition of Grand Touring. With a swipe of his felt tip pen over a just a few panels (roof, rear wings, and deck), Melville and his team transformed the look and mien of this British mid-engine supercar. They've transformed its usefulness, too, with a sizeable hatchback behind the driver and passenger that gives an additional 7.8 cubic feet of space, now 12.4 in total. As vehicle line director Andy Palmer puts it, "more than that in a Ford Focus." And he should know, having worked on that ubiquitous Ford in a former life. The side-hinged glass rear hatch means curbside loading is possible, although you'll have to luggage across the coachwork, so watch for those brass sliders and zips. The hinge side varies according to left-versus right-hand-drive markets. The redesigned aluminium panels and additional trim adds more than 80 pounds to the car's claimed weight – 2,976 pounds compared to 2,894 in the 570S. There's an associated (though negligible) reduction in acceleration time with the GT, too – 3.4 seconds to 62 miles per hour, up from 3.2 in the 570S. The larger 0-124-mph sprint takes 9.8 seconds, compared to the S' 9.5, but never fear, the top end remains unchanged at 204 mph. The basic carbon-fiber tub remains, as does the mid-mounted Ricardo designed-and-built M838TE engine – a 3.8-liter, 90-degree, quad-cam, dry-sump, twin-turbo V8, which pumps out 562 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque, running through a seven-speed, twin-clutch, semi-automatic transmission to the rear wheels. There are, however, chassis changes to suit the GT car's long-distance ambitions. While a significant minority of 570S owners will take their car to the track for the occasional speedy lap or two, McLaren says that even fewer GT owners will indulge themselves like this.

Have McLaren F1 values topped out?

The McLaren F1 was a game-changer when it came out in the early 1990s, and it's still widely regarded as one of the finest supercars ever made. It's little wonder that values have been climbing in recent years. The question for collectors is now: Will prices keep rising, or have they reached their zenith? As recently as 2006, you could pick one up for less than $1 million: the database at classic car insurance firm Hagerty shows that an example in fair condition 10 years ago was worth around $700,000, while a top-notch, concours-ready specimen was valued at about $1.15 million. That seemed like a lot at the time, but just two years later, that range had skyrocketed to between $2.3 million and $3 million. Suddenly those 2006 prices seemed like a smart investment in hindsight, but after that initial jump, they stayed around that level for several more years before things started getting crazy. "Buyers over the last several years have been end users as opposed to speculators and they routinely drive and enjoy the cars." – Jonathan Klinger, Hagerty By the start of 2013, values had jumped to between $4.1 and 5.3 million. By the end of that year, they were up to between $6.5 and 8.9 million. And by the end of 2014, they had reached $7.9 million for one in fair condition, and over $10 million for a pristine example. But then things leveled out again. "Values have risen quickly," notes Jonathan Klinger, vice president at Hagerty, "but it isn't a bubble situation. Buyers over the last several years have been end users as opposed to speculators and they routinely drive and enjoy the cars." Sports Car Market records that the last F1 to change hands at auction was a 1998 model that RM Sotheby's sold for $13.75 million as part of the Pinnacle Portfolio in Monterey last summer. But that example had the rare best-of-both-worlds combination of the LM performance upgrades with the road-spec interior to make it stand out above the rest. Gooding & Company sold another F1 over the same weekend in 2013 for $8.47 million, but a year later, a seller refused a high bid of $10.75 million for a mint-condition example. "For the time being, we see a very stable market for F1s," says David Brynan, senior specialist at Gooding.